The Biden administration said on Friday it will no longer use an Alabama immigration jail that’s been commonly known as one of the worst sites in the nation, as well as scale back use of sites in a number of other states. The news is a years-in-the-making victory for affected individuals and their advocates.
“This announcement is a credit to more than a decade of community organizing by Alabama immigrant rights activists and brave advocacy from people detained in the facility,” the National Immigrant Justice Center, National Immigration Project, and Detention Watch Network said in a statement received by Daily Kos.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it will stop its use of the abusive Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama, pointing to “a long history of serious deficiencies identified during facility inspections,” The Washington Post reported. Etowah has been the site of anti-immigrant abuses for years, and as of just a couple of weeks ago, was named in a lawsuit for refusing to boost detained immigrants against COVID-19.
“It is difficult to put into words how monumental a win this is for the movement to end immigration detention in the US,” Detention Watch Network Executive Director Silky Shah said in a statement from the We Are Home campaign. “The Etowah County Detention Center exemplifies everything that is wrong with immigration detention and why the detention system must be abolished.”
The Biden administration also said it will cut back the use of the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana and the Alamance County Detention Facility in North Carolina, as well as pause immigration detention at Glades County Detention Center in Florida.
In the case of the Florida facility, the Shut Down Glades Coalition said in a statement that the Biden administration will not renew a contract provision guaranteeing payment for 300 beds. Currently, it’s using a couple of dozen. “The agency also announced it would be ‘pausing’ its use of the jail as an immigration detention center.” But The Post reports “officials said they are open to using the jail again someday if the county addresses the issues they raised.”
But we know ICE simply doesn’t care or want to treat the people under its watch with dignity and humanity. Just days ago, the Department of Homeland Security watchdog urged the release of all people detained at an abusive New Mexico facility, in an unprecedented move. ICE’s response was to call the watchdog a liar and accuse it of faking evidence. Lawmakers, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in a Feb. 1 letter noted “a systemic pattern of racially based abuse” against Black immigrants at Glades, including the use of chemical spray, use of solitary confinement (which is torture), and veiled death threats.
“Black immigrants at Glades are also subject to anti-immigrant verbal abuse that is often tied to their nationality. These events are unacceptable and have continued at an alarming rate under this administration.” The site has been slapped with more than 35 complaints since the start of the pandemic, 15 of them under the current administration. Lawmakers and advocates in the Shut Down Glades Coalition statement urged officials to go all the way, and fully terminate the contract.
“I applaud the Biden administration’s decision to stop sending immigrants to the Glades facility,” Wasserman Schultz said in the coalition release. “The long, disturbing record of inhumane treatment at this facility demands this move. I will continue to closely monitor this contract, and press for its complete termination.”
Bel’Or Mbema Mapudi Ngoma, who had been detained at Glades, called the facility “one of the worst experiences” in ICE detention. “I experienced constant abuses at Glades, in addition to unprofessional and racist treatment. The xenophobia I experienced at Glades reflects the limited vision of the world at places like Glades. Thus, Glades must close rather than continue to subject people to inhumane conditions, which would be a step in the direction of a vision of a world where all people are treated with humanity.”
“Emptying Glades, ending the guaranteed minimum, and requiring Glades to fully address conditions that do not meet detention standards are all huge steps in the right direction," said Immigrant Action Alliance Glades Lead Rebecca Talbot. "This is the result of tireless work by advocates, as well as detained people and their families who have taken great risk to speak out. Now it’s time for the Biden administration to commit to closing Glades fully and forever, and to release those who have been transferred from Glades to other facilities.”
The Biden administration is now also seeking thousands fewer immigration detention beds, from 34,000 current beds, down to 25,000 beds. This is absolutely the right direction to be going toward. “These are the victories that I live for, my purpose. Knowing that less people will be subjected to the ongoing conditions in Etowah is a prayer answered,” said Karim Golding, who had been detained there for more than four years. “I just hope they continue to spotlight similar facilities.”
RELATED: DHS secretary orders termination of ICE contracts with two sites under federal investigation
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RELATED: 'Requests have been simply ignored': ACLU sues ICE for refusing to boost detained immigrants
“This announcement is a credit to more than a decade of community organizing by Alabama immigrant rights activists and brave advocacy from people detained in the facility,” the National Immigrant Justice Center, National Immigration Project, and Detention Watch Network said in a statement received by Daily Kos.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said it will stop its use of the abusive Etowah County Detention Center in Alabama, pointing to “a long history of serious deficiencies identified during facility inspections,” The Washington Post reported. Etowah has been the site of anti-immigrant abuses for years, and as of just a couple of weeks ago, was named in a lawsuit for refusing to boost detained immigrants against COVID-19.
“It is difficult to put into words how monumental a win this is for the movement to end immigration detention in the US,” Detention Watch Network Executive Director Silky Shah said in a statement from the We Are Home campaign. “The Etowah County Detention Center exemplifies everything that is wrong with immigration detention and why the detention system must be abolished.”
The Biden administration also said it will cut back the use of the Winn Correctional Center in Louisiana and the Alamance County Detention Facility in North Carolina, as well as pause immigration detention at Glades County Detention Center in Florida.
In the case of the Florida facility, the Shut Down Glades Coalition said in a statement that the Biden administration will not renew a contract provision guaranteeing payment for 300 beds. Currently, it’s using a couple of dozen. “The agency also announced it would be ‘pausing’ its use of the jail as an immigration detention center.” But The Post reports “officials said they are open to using the jail again someday if the county addresses the issues they raised.”
But we know ICE simply doesn’t care or want to treat the people under its watch with dignity and humanity. Just days ago, the Department of Homeland Security watchdog urged the release of all people detained at an abusive New Mexico facility, in an unprecedented move. ICE’s response was to call the watchdog a liar and accuse it of faking evidence. Lawmakers, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, in a Feb. 1 letter noted “a systemic pattern of racially based abuse” against Black immigrants at Glades, including the use of chemical spray, use of solitary confinement (which is torture), and veiled death threats.
“Black immigrants at Glades are also subject to anti-immigrant verbal abuse that is often tied to their nationality. These events are unacceptable and have continued at an alarming rate under this administration.” The site has been slapped with more than 35 complaints since the start of the pandemic, 15 of them under the current administration. Lawmakers and advocates in the Shut Down Glades Coalition statement urged officials to go all the way, and fully terminate the contract.
“I applaud the Biden administration’s decision to stop sending immigrants to the Glades facility,” Wasserman Schultz said in the coalition release. “The long, disturbing record of inhumane treatment at this facility demands this move. I will continue to closely monitor this contract, and press for its complete termination.”
Bel’Or Mbema Mapudi Ngoma, who had been detained at Glades, called the facility “one of the worst experiences” in ICE detention. “I experienced constant abuses at Glades, in addition to unprofessional and racist treatment. The xenophobia I experienced at Glades reflects the limited vision of the world at places like Glades. Thus, Glades must close rather than continue to subject people to inhumane conditions, which would be a step in the direction of a vision of a world where all people are treated with humanity.”
“Emptying Glades, ending the guaranteed minimum, and requiring Glades to fully address conditions that do not meet detention standards are all huge steps in the right direction," said Immigrant Action Alliance Glades Lead Rebecca Talbot. "This is the result of tireless work by advocates, as well as detained people and their families who have taken great risk to speak out. Now it’s time for the Biden administration to commit to closing Glades fully and forever, and to release those who have been transferred from Glades to other facilities.”
The Biden administration is now also seeking thousands fewer immigration detention beds, from 34,000 current beds, down to 25,000 beds. This is absolutely the right direction to be going toward. “These are the victories that I live for, my purpose. Knowing that less people will be subjected to the ongoing conditions in Etowah is a prayer answered,” said Karim Golding, who had been detained there for more than four years. “I just hope they continue to spotlight similar facilities.”
RELATED: DHS secretary orders termination of ICE contracts with two sites under federal investigation
RELATED: Over 100 House members call on Biden administration to halt its ICE detention expansion
RELATED: 'Requests have been simply ignored': ACLU sues ICE for refusing to boost detained immigrants